ROSEMEAD – Wal-Mart foes scrambled to recover Tuesday from a City Council decision that overturned the scheduled recall election targeting two of the retailer’s biggest supporters on the council.

“They killed it,” said Jim Flournoy, member of Save Our Community, the activist group leading the recall campaign and the fight against a Wal-Mart on 24 acres at Walnut Grove Avenue and Rush Street. “I don’t think their actions are valid.”

Flournoy said SOC is researching a possible lawsuit against the city.

Rosemead Mayor Jay Imperial and Councilman Gary Taylor – the targets of the recall – were joined on Monday by Councilwoman Margaret Clark in overturning the recall election that was set for Feb. 7. Councilmen John Nunez and John Tran voted against the decision.

The move would allow the city to seek direction from a federal judge on what to do with a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Nov. 23 that requires recall petitions be multilingual.

Clark suggested the city push to get that decision within

21 days.

“I don’t think it can be done that fast,” City Attorney Peter Wallin said on Tuesday.

The city is only obligated to get the decision “expeditiously,” Wallin said. It is more likely a judge’s decision won’t reach the city until after 30 days, he said.

If the judge rules the petition, which was circulated only in English, is not in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, the city may proceed with the recall election, Wallin said.

“The likelihood is we couldn’t do it Feb. 7,” Wallin said. Rather, the recall could be pushed back by a significant number of weeks if it were to continue at all.

If the judge rules the petition is not defective, the council’s action on Monday night would stand and recall proponents would have to decide whether or not to start the process over again.

According to the Census, 39,500 Rosemead residents, or 80 percent of the city’s population, speaks a language other than English at home. A federal consent decree handed down in July requires Rosemead to provide all election materials in Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese.

“Many people in the minority community have no idea that a recall is going on and a lot of people are upset,” Imperial said on Tuesday.

Steven Ly, a spokesman for Imperial and Taylor, said the council decision defends the rights of the city’s multilingual community.

Ly, who also speaks for the Putting Rosemead in a Desirable Environment, said the pro Wal-Mart group had been planning to reach out to the city’s ethnic communities in its anti-recall campaign.

For the time being, PRIDE will work on the assumption that the recall election will happen, Ly said. While the council’s action on Monday halts all election-day organizing by the city, nothing prevents either side from campaigning for or against recall.